I direct your attention to Article 1, Section 8, Clause 2.
"The Congress shall have Power ... To borrow Money on the credit of the United States"
OK. Your narrow point is accepted. However, the Congress uses borrowing powers to control by payment or non payment the line by line policy detail of US Government, whereas the Founders envisaged that there should be no continuing borrowing except in time of war. The deficit is the way the lawyers and the mob have got hold of US policy.
Interestingly such “....agreements are only “binding on the conscience of the sovereign”, as the doctrine of sovereign immunity prevents a creditor from suing in court if the government reneges its commitment.”
“The common practice is to look at national debt and deficits by President. However this practice ignores the role of Congress. It takes actions by Congress to raise the debt ceiling (allowing issuance of debt) and Congress must pass all budget bills. Tracking deficits and debt increases by control of Congress gives a much different picture than by tracking by President. The U.S. Congress was dominated by Republicans from 1861 - 1931, a period when 47 peacetime surpluses were experienced and only 13 peacetime deficits. Democrats dominated the Congress from 1933 to 1994. During that time only 7 peace time surpluses were experienced. The last budget passed by a Democrat controlled Congress to finish with a surplus came in 1969.
The United States has had public debt since its inception. Debts incurred during the American Revolutionary War and under the Articles of Confederation led to the first yearly reported value of $75,463,476.52 on January 1, 1791. From 1796 to 1811 there were 14 surpluses and only 2 deficits. The first dramatic growth spurt of the debt occurred because of the the War of 1812. In the first 20 years following the War of 1812, 18 surpluses were experienced and The US paid off 99.97% of its debt.
The second dramatic growth spurt of the debt occurred because of the Civil War. The debt was just $65 million in 1860, but passed $1 billion in 1863 and had reached $2.7 billion following the war. In the following 47 years America returned to the practice of running surpluses during times of peace experiencing 36 surpluses and only 11 deficits. During this period 55% of the US national debt was paid off.
The next period of major growth in debt came during WWI reaching $25.5 billion at its conclusion. It was followed by 11 straight surpluses and saw the debt reduced by 36%.
The buildup and involvement in World War II plus social programs during the F.D. Roosevelt (because of the Great Depression) and Truman presidencies in the 1930s and ‘40s caused a sixteen-fold increase in the gross public debt from $16 billion in 1930 to $260 billion in 1950.
After this period, the growth of the gross public debt closely matched the rate of inflation where it tripled in size from $260 billion in 1950 to around $909 billion in 1980. Gross debt in nominal dollars quadrupled during the Reagan and Bush presidencies from 1980 to 1992. The net public debt quintupled in nominal terms.
In nominal dollars the net public debt rose and then fell between 1992 and 2000 from $3T in 1992 to $3.4T in 2000. During the administration of President George W. Bush, the gross public debt increased from $5.7 trillion in January 2001 to $10.7 trillion by December 2008,[2] rising from 57.0% of GDP to 74.5% of GDP. The Congressional Budget Office estimated in March 2009 that under the Obama administration net public debt would rise from 40.8% of GDP in 2008 to 70.1% in 2012.[7] Gross debt did rise to about 84.4% of GDP at the end of Fiscal Year 2009 and to about 93.4% of GDP at the end of Fiscal Year 2010.”